


Oswald's Reunion Date

by avespika



Category: Doctor Who, Doctor Who (2005)
Genre: F/M, Fluff, Romance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-08-14
Updated: 2016-08-14
Packaged: 2018-08-08 17:18:09
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,959
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7766539
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/avespika/pseuds/avespika
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Clara brings the Doctor to her ten year school reunion and learns that he has a different view of their last year together.</p><p>Set during some undefined point in season 9.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Oswald's Reunion Date

**Author's Note:**

> I've had a draft of this kicking around for about a month now. I was unsure if it was too out-of-character for the Doctor but then I figured this is just his failure to communicate taken to the extreme so I might as well put it out there in case anyone else finds this scenario amusing.

Clara practiced in front of the mirror before actually asking him. No, she wouldn’t be asking him. She’d be making a demand. He owed her after that last trip. She needed a date for her class reunion and her favorite earrings were now being slowly digested by a carnivorous space duck. There had to be a way to link those two things.

She was surprised when he offered little resistance.

“I'll make sure to be ready and waiting that night. Are we going to Blackpool by train or do you mind traveling by TARDIS?”

“Sorry, what did you say?”

The Doctor shrugged. “Since class reunions are a uniquely human form of nostalgia I thought I’d offer you the choice to have a nice, long, very human train journey to think things over on the way there. And I assumed we’d be there overnight, give you a chance to see your dad in the morning. But if it’s all the same to you we’ll just take the TARDIS.”

“Oh… ok.” Clara was genuinely baffled. Typically the Doctor rejected boring human life events immediately after she proposed them. Except after Christmas, when he’d actually attended her gran’s birthday lunch without too much whining. And last month when he volunteered to accompany her to Adrian’s fancy dress party. But this was different, this would require behaving like a proper date.

“What do you want me to wear?”

“Ah, hadn’t thought that far ahead, actually. I'm sure you can sort it out.”

“Right but is this formal dress? Does it require a swimming costume or a ceremonial headdress?”

“None of the above. Just wear, I don’t know, what you usually wear.” Clara imagined how dashing he’d look walking her in with his long jacket and pressed shirt. “Just not the holey jumper, please.”

“You got it boss.”

True to his word the Doctor appeared promptly at seven the night of the reunion. He looked more than presentable if a bit eccentric with his stately but flamboyantly-lined coat. Her perfect complement even if he only saw her as a platonic companion.

The Doctor landed the TARDIS in the alley behind the event venue and offered Clara his arm.

“So much formality, Doctor. What’s going on?”

“I know how important impressing your peers is to humans so I’m doing what I can.”

“So no scanning my classmates with the sonic, no asking the DJ to play Venusian punk rock, no Auton invasion on the dance floor?”

“For the last time, Clara, I didn’t invite the Autons to that disco, they arrived of their own accord! But no, no invasions as far as I know.”

Clara eyed him with suspicion. Ordinarily he acted like this when he was covering for something, like the time he showed up at her school pretending to be the caretaker. She’d have to keep a close eye on him tonight. She took a deep breath and pushed through the door.

A crowd of her oldest friends and foes was milling around the room, swapping baby photos and clutching vodka tonics. Clara put on her brightest smile, grasped the Doctor’s arm more tightly, and steered him into the fray.

“OSWALD!” a crowd of women gathered in a corner roared.

Clara went pale. Her girls were about to meet the Doctor. Perhaps more distressingly, the Doctor was about to meet her girls. She widened her smile and shouted back. “Monique! Wendy! Jill! Meet my, ah, friend. Dr. John Smith.” The women piled on Clara, hugging her tightly.

The Doctor stood back and watched with amusement. “Clara, I had no idea you actually had friends.”

“Oh, don’t ever listen to Clara,” Monique started. “She’s always been popular, especially with the MacGregor twins. Who, by the way, are both here tonight.” Clara felt her face redden.

“More of your friends, Clara? Should we go meet them?” The Doctor asked.

“Err. Not exactly. We didn’t part on the best terms,” said Clara.

“She dated Michael _and_ Rebecca. At the same time,” said Jill.

“So ‘didn’t part on the best terms’ is a royal understatement,” added Wendy.

Clara felt flustered. She seized on an opportunity. “Jill, who’s this lovely lady?”

“Where are my manners? This is my wife, Mei. Mei, Clara Oswald.” Clara exchanged a handshake with Jill’s wife. Monique introduced her boyfriend, Leo, and Wendy announced she’d come alone.

“I figured why drag someone along to this awkward thing? I mean it’s alright for you guys, all partnered up, but I’m not going to force just a friend through this.”

Clara ran a hand through her hair. “Uh, actually, we aren’t-  

“Shots! Come on ladies, we need tequila,” said Monique. She looked around the circle, pointing at each of her friends in turn. “Who’s in?”

“ME!” shouted Wendy. “Clara?”

“Uh, Jill?” said Clara, looking to her most sensible friend for an out.

Jill grinned. “Can’t. Pregnant!”

Jill’s announcement set off another round of squeals and a cascade of congratulations. “Alright, Mei, you’re standing in for your woman. Drinking for two!” Monique cheered.

The Doctor cupped his hand around Clara’s ear. “Go on, I believe this is part of the ritual.”

“It isn’t a ritual, Doctor,” Clara hissed through her teeth.

“Secrets don’t make friends,” Wendy called from bar. “Clara, tear yourself away from your man and get over here!”

“Wendy, I-”

“No excuses. Unless you’re knocked up like Jill you’d better be over here by the time I finish this sentence.”

Clara reluctantly left the Doctor’s side and slid into place at the bar. They’d been mistaken for a couple twice now and she hadn’t had a chance to make a correction. The Doctor was probably horrified; she’d be lucky to get him to escort her to anything on Earth again. Just when he’d learned to be polite to humans other than her she’d gone and screwed it up. She looked back at him, immersed in conversation with Jill and Leo, and sighed.

Monique handed Clara a shot glass and they knocked back the first round. As the group ordered drinks to take back to their partners Clara began thinking of excuses to leave early. She was eager to mitigate the Doctor’s misery and her own embarrassment.

When she approached the group again she could hear the Doctor speaking to the others. This was it, the moment everything went to hell. He might even disclose that he’s a time traveler just to correct her friends about their relationship. They’d probably all think she was nuts once they spoke to the Doctor for any length of time.

“Yes, well, we were only friends until last Christmas when we decided to make a proper go of it.” 

Clara froze. Why had he just said that? There must be an alien in disguise here and he needed deep cover. Or he hadn’t understood someone’s question. She had to get over there now and fix whatever was going on. She shoved a drink into the Doctor’s hands and prepared herself to face whatever was coming.

“So, what’s everyone chatting about,” she asked, hoping the conversation wasn’t going the way she thought it might be.

“I was just telling them how we started dating,” the Doctor said with a smile. “Christmas night. I was very romantic.”

“You were what?” Clara looked around the circle at a number of surprised expressions. Clearly they’d bought the Doctor’s lie and were confused by her question. This was going to be impossible to correct. “Sorry, everyone, I need a moment with my, erm, boyfriend… Doctor, I think the bar tender, umm, said our headlights were on. So we need to go, ah, outside.”

“But we didn’t come by car?”

Clara elbowed him, causing his drink to tip a little. “And now you’ve spilled that, we’ve got to get you cleaned up.” She took his free hand and tugged him outside into the alley.

The moment they were outside she turned to face the Doctor. “What was that all about?”

The Doctor looked puzzled. “They asked how we met so I told them, well, I lied a little considering I couldn’t tell them you were trapped inside the internet and I wasn’t even this me at that point.”

“No, the romantic Christmas thing!”

Now the Doctor was looking at her like she was the mad one. “They asked how we started dating so I told them.”

What had he just said? Clara shook her head; clearly the single tequila shot she’d had was affecting her mind already. “Why would you say that? Is one of them a Zygon and you need to throw them off who you are?”

The Doctor raised his eyebrows. “I have no idea if one them is a Zygon because you told me not to scan anyone tonight, remember? Why are you being so defensive, Clara?” His eyes widened. “ _Is_ one of them a Zygon? Because I ask you not to hide that sort of thing from me, it’s much easier to address it if we’re upfront about it.”

Clara had had enough. “No, I just don’t know why you’re allowing, and even encouraging, everyone to think we’re a couple!”

The Doctor looked wounded. “Since when are we not a couple? Clara, if I’ve done something wrong you have to tell me, I don’t have a card for every little slight that would make you cross with me. Clara? Clara, why are your eyes doing that thing?”

Clara stood in the alley, eyes wide and mouth open, staring at the Doctor. He cautiously approached her and gently placed a hand under her chin, closing her mouth and wrapping her in a hug. After a moment he pulled back and noticed her still-vacant expression. “Clara, really, you’re making me quite nervous. Usually the hugging resets your emotions.”

Clara took a few breaths and then looked up at the Doctor. “You think that we’re romantically together?”

The Doctor nodded. “Why wouldn’t I? We do everything together and on Christmas night you ran off with me indefinitely, no more of the Wednesdays-only business. We hug, sometimes I even hug you first. We hold hands, I bring you emotionally-significant gifts, you make me soufflés. We’ve been all Clara and her Doctor, all the time, for months now.”

“Why didn’t you ever think to tell me?”

He blinked back at her. “Did it need saying? I thought after you ran away with me in your pajamas the thing spoke for itself.”

“But we’ve never even kissed.”

“I thought you wanted to move slowly, considering when we started you were still very emotional from losing Danny. I’ve been very patient waiting for you to kiss me.”

Clara laughed. “Seeing as one of us didn’t even realize we were dating, I think you succeeded with going slowly.”

“Clara, if this isn’t what you want, if I’ve gotten the whole human romance thing wrong again, please don’t go. I- it doesn’t have to be this way. I thought you knew, I thought you fancied me too, but River always said I was rubbish at figuring these things out so if I’ve completely misread the situation-”

Clara closed the distance between them and kissed him, stopping him from continuing what had promised to be a long-winded rant. After a moment he caught on and wrapped his arms around her, leaning into the kiss and making soft noises of appreciation under her lips.

When they finally broke apart the Doctor took Clara’s hand and began walking toward the entrance to the reunion. Clara stopped and pulled him back. “Wait. Wrong direction.”

“But all your friends are still in there.”

“Time machine, Doctor. You don’t think I’m going back to my class reunion when I’ve only just found out I’ve been dating you for nearly a year.”

The Doctor grinned. “You’re the boss.”


End file.
